Is Life Worth Living?

Posted on November 30th, 2007 by Guy Lewis

â€œLife, and an awareness to experience it with, is blessing beyond compareâ€
(The Compact Cosmos, Matt Tweed, Wooden Books)

Here are some thoughts on life that I thought may be helpful for anyone who is wondering about the point of life as part of experiencing a mid-life crisis. I hope they are helpful to you.

I regularly recall one of the last scenes in Bladerunner (Copyright Warner Bros inc.) where Roy Batty watches over Deckard as he desperately clings onto a ledge to avoid certain death. Roy saves him at the last minute, an expression of respect for life even though Deckard is his enemy. Roy knows his life will soon end. In the last moments he thinks about his life. He tells Deckard of the wonderful things he has seen across the universe and expresses sadness that these memories are now about to die within him.

I found that scene tremendously powerful and find it epitomises the value of life and the frustration I have with the waste and loss that death inevitably causes. Roy’s last words are, “Time to die”.

I believe life is the most important possession that we own.

Yet the inevitability and the lack of control we have over death, perhaps seeing it as a process that takes place which no one has any control over can create a feeling. A fundamental law of a controlling force or simply a ‘universal law’ created through the logic and workings of the universe that then means it is time to die.

When one considers our own death, and its impact on our loved ones we may feel sad for them, missing them already, as if its our loss that we are taken away from them, perhaps missing seeing young ones grow up to be great people, witnessing their key life moments, wanting to support them to become great people that have a positive impact on other’s lives, as I hope I can be too.

Yet we must celebrate what we have seen, those events that have taken place that we were part of and which may have contributed to steering our loved ones in a way that shapes them better for the future we may not be here for.

We should feel thankful for these moments, now we are more certain of their preciousness. Most of those I have known who have died have simply disappeared and never returned; somehow leaving which fate decides is the last time I see them. Then inevitably someone tells me of their death which leaves me wondering when exactly was it I last saw them and what was the last thing I said to them.

I have feelings of guilt and wishing that if I had known it was the last time I would see them I would have said something more special to them. As I left my father-in-law he squeezed my hand hard, I didn’t know he was doing to die but he did. If I had known I could have told him how much he meant to me, yet I denied myself the opportunity.

I wonder what the last thing will be I will say to my children, and to friends and people close to me. When will be the last time I travel on a particular road, when will be the last time I see the house I was born in?

I resolve my feelings about death by making sense of life and some outcomes that help me follow my own path,

I want to respect and honour those I care for, for when they are gone I want to know I made a difference in their lives,

I want to always consider the last time I see someone is the goodbye I am just about to have with them, the inspiration of those that have gone could be the universal spark of life that transfers to another person.

I believe that life is so precious that we must try our hardest to not take it, especially our own.

Guy.

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